Average Rating: 5.9/10
Reviews Counted: 54
Fresh: 32 | Rotten: 22
Love Songs is hampered by a lack of focus, but held together by Honore's deft direction and an engaging cast.
Average Rating: 6.1/10
Critic Reviews: 12
Fresh: 8 | Rotten: 4
Love Songs is hampered by a lack of focus, but held together by Honore's deft direction and an engaging cast.
liked it
Average Rating: 4/5
User Ratings: 5,777
Though Love Songs (aka Les Chansons d'Amour) is not a film operetta per se, director Christophe Honoré and composer/lyricist/vocalist Alex Beaupain use that film to pay homage to the French movie musical as conceived by Jacques Demy in his classic Les Parapluies de Cherbourg (1967). The Honoré film concerns a series of hopelessly romantic Parisian characters who are unable to convey their feelings to one another in everyday situations, and who thus use musical numbers as outlets -- as vehicles
Unrated, 1 hr. 35 min.
Mar 21, 2008 Limited
Jun 17, 2008
IFC First Take
All Critics (57) | Top Critics (13) | Fresh (33) | Rotten (22) | DVD (3)
Conceived by Honore as a tribute to a dead friend, the helmer is perhaps too close to his subject, never quite able to bring himself to linger on the grief that should be at pic's core.
This inexpressibly tender and lovely picture suggests that [Honoré's] developing into a major talent, one who can make the spirit of classic French movies come alive in a new world.
As dark as these themes seem, in Honoré's capable hands, they become almost frothy and the perfect elements for a surprisingly joyous musical.
Yes, it's weird. But it's wild card weird, with that thrill of never knowing what's coming next or when these Parisians are going to get musical on us.
You'll laugh. You'll swoon.
Whereas Umbrellas of Cherbourg has become timeless in its depiction of romance, Love Songs strikes a strongly contemporary note in its calm acceptance of the fluidity of desire and emotion.
The terrific credit sequence sets the tone and the movie almost catches up.
Another pansexual odyssey from Christopher Honoré; this one has singing
Sweetly plays on stereotypes of the French as obsessed with romance, or at least movie musicals, so regardless of any consistency or logic, love and singing conquer all.
Why make a movie about bohemian swingers, if all you're going to serve up is the French equivalent of a Broadway musical?
It's a story which Honoré describes as personal, so we must assume that there is some truth at least in the premise. But the decision to set the story to music undermines the emotional honesty that the piece might otherwise have had.
Starts well but loses its way in the middle section and never quite recovers, despite some catchy songs and decent performances.
Sokaristiko ohi gia tin tolmi ton eikonon, i ton ideon toy, alla giati katebazei ti diastimiki apithanotita toy na brethei sokolatoyho gala ston Ari, kai soy ti serbirei me ayga kai mpeikon, les kai to pio anorthodokso pragma s' ayto, einai oti to stayrol
There's little doubt that Love Songs' reliance on mind-bogglingly ineffective musical numbers inevitably triggers its downfall...
It's one thing to emote through singing, but competing with the memory of a beloved classic is more than his gorgeous and talented cast can overcome.
Oh, what a sweet, sad, sexy movie!
...an interesting exercise by writer/director Christophe Honore but it plays too unevenly.
[Christophe] Honore drops the brightness and joy of the form into the chilly, gray winter of Paris to explore love and loss and intimacy.
Love Songs finds the magic that the great screen musicals have -- the way a sad song can nonetheless leave an audience happy, or the way two voices blending seems to create something so much bigger.
If you love really French films, you'll likely adore Christophe Honore's pop-musical follow-up to Dans Paris.
While it never remotely aproaches the greats of "Les Parapluies de Cherbourgh", which it borrows heavily from, it is a charming little musical with a surprise twist at the end.
June 23, 2011Super Reviewer
After the almost unbearable first part(the departure) it follows the story & its characters in a more convincing & engaging way but not enough to save the entire thing from the abyss
July 10, 2009Super Reviewer
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